Undertake a survey to identify children lacking birth registration and/or identity documentation, and
ensure retroactive birth registration and issuance of documents; and
Ensure children lacking identity documents are not refused access to services.
LACK OF AGE DETERMINATION PROTOCOLS
07 Mechanisms to investigate a person’s age in the absence of a birth certificate are lacking.
Pakistan should establish compulsory procedures to determine the age of a prisoner. These
procedures should include a presumption of validity of official records and place the onus of
proving beyond reasonable doubt that a person was not a juvenile upon the State.
08 Effective age determination mechanisms must ensure that where there is no proof of age, the
child is entitled to a proper investigation and where the evidence is conflicting or inconclusive
the child shall have the right to the rule of the benefit of the doubt.
TORTURE AND CRUEL INHUMAN AND DEGRADING TREATMENT
09 Cruel and inhuman punishments of all persons below 18 years should be prohibited (including)
death sentences and length prison terms and sentences) and alternative measures of sentencing
to detention should be promoted, wherever possible.
10
Pakistan is recommended to expressly exempt all children below the age of 18 years from
punishment for Hadood offences which involve amputation, whipping, stoning and other forms
of torture and cruel and degrading punishment.
11
There are reports of systematic and widespread torture and ill treatment of children in police
stations and prisons, including reports of torture of children by the Faisalabad district police.
Pakistan is urged to launch an independent inquiry into all alleged cases of torture and ill-treatment of children, in particular committed by law-enforcement officers, including the Faisalabad
district police, and ensure those carrying out, ordering, condoning or facilitating these practices
are brought to justice and punished.
LOW IMPLEMENTATION OF JJSO
12
Pakistan has insufficiently implemented the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance (JJSO) of 2000
which provides for juvenile courts staffed by specially trained juvenile personnel, children to not
be tried as adults in Shariah courts, and that the death penalty should not apply to children (as
per 12(a) JJSO). This Ordinance should prevail over all other laws.
13
The detention of children together with adults leads to the abuse of children by other prisoners
and prison staff. Pakistan must ensure children are not detained with adults, detention conditions comply with international standards, there is systematic and regular monitoring of detention places where children are detained, and any reports of ill-treatment are investigated and
perpetrators punished.